Article Archive
Please click below to view any of the articles in our archive.
null / Credit: Rohane Hamilton/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 20, 2025 / 17:45 pm (CNA).The chairman of the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee and chairman of the committee for laity, marriage, family life, and youth criticized the new Trump administration order expanding in vitro fertilization (IVF) access.Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, and Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, released a joint statement issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposing the president's order and urging more humane options for infertility."As pastors," the bishops said, "we see the suffering of so many couples experiencing infertility and know their deep desire to have children is both good and admirable; yet the administration's push for IVF, which ends countless human lives and treats persons like property, cannot be the answer." The executive order calls for White House advisers to submit policy recommendations to protect...
"Lord, give me the grace to be faithful to you and to the Church until eternity" is the daily prayer of retired Archbishop Ramón Benito de la Rosa y Carpio. / Credit: Anthony García, assistant to the archbishop emeritusACI Prensa Staff, Feb 20, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).Archbishop Ramón Benito de la Rosa y Carpio was born on Sept. 19, 1939, a little over 85 years ago, in the town of Higüey in the Dominican Republic, the country where he has spent himself and wore himself out for the faithful entrusted to him. The midwife who attended to his Mami Nena, as he affectionately calls his mother, was his great-grandmother Damiana Cedano, who that day prophesied what would later come true: "Nenita, your son is a boy and he will be a priest."Sharing in this marvelous way how his story began, the archbishop expressed his gratitude to those who participated in the celebration of his 60 years of priesthood, which was held at the cathedral of Santiago de los Caballeros, an archdiocese...
A nursery room is seen at the Women's Eastern Reception, Diagnostic, and Correctional Center (WERDCC) in Vandalia, Missouri. / Credit: Missouri Department of CorrectionsCNA Staff, Feb 20, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).A prison nursery program in Missouri that has drawn support from local Catholic leaders is offering mothers a supportive "family-oriented" place to bond with their newborn babies while still incarcerated. The nursery program at the Women's Eastern Reception, Diagnostic, and Correctional Center (WERDCC) in Vandalia, Missouri, is offering "a great opportunity to reach a lot of moms" who might otherwise be separated from their very young children, program manager Kim Perkins told CNA. Children's and baby's clothing are seen in the nursery facility at the Women's Eastern Reception, Diagnostic, and Correctional Center (WERDCC) in Vandalia, Missouri. Credit: Missouri Department of CorrectionsPerkins said the facility came about after the Missouri Legislature in 2022 p...
null / Credit: KieferPix/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 20, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).A group of pro-life philanthropists in the United States has launched a $30 million Pro-Life Venture Fund to support projects aimed at making abortion "unavailable and unthinkable," according to its founder.The new group, called the Life Leadership Conference, was formally announced on Tuesday, Feb. 18. The intention, according to the executive director, David Bereit, is to reduce overlap and redundancies among pro-life groups and create "a team dedicated to advancing the entirety of the movement.""This is what the pro-life movement has needed, in my opinion, for decades," Bereit told CNA.Although Bereit said "everything is still in the very earliest stages" and "we have not begun the process of formal invitations and establishing the membership," the Life Leadership Conference is already backed by influential pro-life leaders.Bereit previously founded and led the international pro-lif...
The statue of St. John Paul II outside Gemelli hospital with flowers for Pope Francis; and the pontiff smiling at the Feb. 12, 2025, general audience at the Vatican. / Credit: Victoria Cardiel / EWTN News // Vatican MediaVatican City, Feb 20, 2025 / 02:05 am (CNA).Pope Francis was admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Friday, Feb. 14, to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis, the Vatican said. On Tuesday he was diagnosed with double pneumonia but on Wednesday showed "slight improvement," according to the Vatican.Follow here for the latest news on Pope Francis' health and hospitalization:
Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win. / Credit: Courtesy of Archdiocese of MandalayACI Prensa Staff, Feb 19, 2025 / 17:20 pm (CNA).Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win, a 44-year-old diocesan priest of the Archdiocese of Mandalay in Myanmar, was killed Feb. 14 in the midst of the civil war that has plunged the Asian country into a serious humanitarian and human rights crisis.According to the Vatican agency Fides, the priest's body was found by some members of the faithful around 6 a.m. local time, "mutilated and disfigured with stab wounds," on the grounds of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, where the priest worked as a parish priest. Ye Naing Win was ordained a priest in 2018. He devoted himself to his parishioners with zeal and fidelity, also bringing humanitarian assistance and spiritual consolation to those displaced by the civil war.The church where he served is in the village of Kan Gyi Taw in the territory of the Shwe Bo district belonging to the Sagaing region. This area, Fid...
Immigrants at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley humanitarian respite center in McAllen, Texas. / Credit: Vic Hinterlang/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 19, 2025 / 17:40 pm (CNA).Local Catholic Charities agencies across the country are being forced to lay off staff and weigh shutting down programs in the wake of the Trump administration's 90-day federal funding freeze. Upon taking office last month, President Donald Trump issued directives that, among other measures, paused grants to organizations that aid migrants and refugees.The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), on Feb. 18 filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over what the bishops say is an unlawful suspension of funding for refugee programs in the United States, many of which are run by Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities Santa Rosa: Aid for legal migrants cut Last week Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Santa Rosa, California, became one of the first local agencies...
Immigrants at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley humanitarian respite center in McAllen, Texas. / Credit: Vic Hinterlang/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Feb 19, 2025 / 11:50 am (CNA).Both Pope Francis and numerous American bishops in recent weeks have called for more generous U.S. immigration policies, urging leaders and advocates to support laws and regulations that allow immigrants in the United States to remain here whenever possible.In a Feb. 10 letter, Pope Francis urged the U.S. bishops to stay the course in their support for generous immigration policies and called on Catholics to consider the justness of immigration laws and policies in light of the dignity and rights of people.The letter, which was widely seen as a rebuke to President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance's support for the mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants, argued that deporting people who "in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, per...
A rainbow appears above the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for tests and treatment for bronchitis in Rome on Feb. 18, 2025. / Credit: TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty ImagesVatican City, Feb 19, 2025 / 12:45 pm (CNA).As Pope Francis continues to undergo complex medical treatment for bilateral pneumonia and a respiratory infection at Rome's Gemelli Hospital, the Vatican on Wednesday released the Holy Father's prepared jubilee catechesis on "Jesus Christ our hope."Reflecting on the visit of the Magi to the child Jesus, recorded exclusively in the Gospel of St. Matthew, the 88-year-old pope encouraged Christians to follow in the footsteps of these wise "pilgrims of hope" who set out on a journey from their homelands in search of God."The Magi were considered to be representatives both of the primordial races, generated by the three sons of Noah, and of the three continents known in antiquity, Asia, Africa, and Europe, as well as the thr...
Left: Banners at Rome's Gemelli University Hospital. Right: Pope Francis waves from a wheelchair, Feb. 13, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNAVatican City, Feb 19, 2025 / 14:20 pm (CNA).Pope Francis' health condition has remained stable as he continues a stay in the hospital, though recent bloodwork showed a "slight improvement," the Vatican said on Wednesday afternoon.According to the Feb. 19 communication, medical staff found the pope's blood tests to show less inflammatory markers. They said his clinical condition is "stationary."The 88-year-old Francis, who has been receiving treatment for a polymicrobial respiratory infection at Gemelli Hospital since Friday, received an additional diagnosis of double pneumonia on Feb. 18.The Vatican said on Wednesday that Pope Francis had breakfast, read a few newspapers, and did some work with the help of his secretaries. Before lunch, the pontiff received the Eucharist, and in the afternoon he was visited by Italian President Giorgia Melo...
